Project Description

Virtual Reality Training – Compressor Operation

VIRTUAL TRAINER

THE CHALLENGE

Oil and gas plants serve as some the world’s most dangerous environments in which to work. Naturally, practicing the right procedures safely is crucial for all levels of engineers.

VR has long been used for training in the Energy industry for many years. But, EON Reality wanted to bring this business-critical training out of caves and domes, and into the latest VR systems – accessible from anywhere in the world with an internet connection – to improve safety, learning outcomes and provide totally immersive, totally trackable training scenarios.

MAKING VR TRAINING COST-EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT

When operators reach proficiency, it means they are equipped to deal with rare process events. However, having this kind of industry wisdom is usually only the result of expensive, time-consuming field experience, as well on-the-job training. In addition, point-and-click scenario training was not producing long-lasting learning outcomes.

PROVIDE TRACKABLE, MULTI-USER VR

Businesses need to make smart decisions about the training expenses, allocation and the outcomes of workplace training. Virtual Trainer SaaS solution needed to achieve three core results. First, to provide the opportunity for clients to centralise their lesson plans. Second, it needed to allow their trainers flexibility without the strain of excessive travel costs. Finally, our VR platform needed to provide trainees a safe space to learn together, with access to typical oil and gas plant simulation lessons at scale, within a learning management system (LMS).

We supplied our VR platform as a service, with models and environments hosted centrally, allowing trainer-led and trainerless practice sessions within them all. This ensured that the relevant experts could teach live and on-demand, as well as update and create VR lessons in their own time, and under-budget.

Our platform was already enabled to integrate content and data with the client’s Learning Management System (LMS). To support the client’s forecasted objectives, we also provided the option to supply our own LMS with our Virtual Trainer platform for future plug-in use.

BE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD – TRAIN AS IF ON SITE

The risks and expenses associated with plant shut down to simulate rare process, or dangerous events, are potentially destructive.Virtual Trainer successfully removed both the risks and the cost-burden of excessive trainer travel and physical plant machinery mockups, by providing true-to-life scenarios, environments and virtual plant machinery at 1:1 scale in VR.

By centralising TSC’s existing model assets within an LMS-integrated VR platform, businesses are now able to appoint and create accurate, exciting, multi-user operator training lessons to match their compliance and HR calendars, not the other way around.

TRACK BEHAVIOURS AND ACTIONS IN VR

The models of plant machinery were upgraded within the platform to give and take haptic feedback smartly for a variety of VR systems, reflecting specific hand movements and user input for valves, buttons other components. Trainees were then able to learn technique and accuracy, as well as process. In keeping with this, our platform hosts virtual tools where requested, for advanced VR lessons.

Virtual Trainer’s SaaS platform worked in the background to track these actions and lesson step completion, inputting these results into a client’s existing Learning Management System (LMS).

THE RESULTS

Working in tandem with TSC, our Virtual Trainer solution helped clients make the most of their existing 3D plant models by providing a Virtual Reality platform to generate immersive, centralised scenario learning. In world of decreasing attention spans, we were able to support client KPIs by making training impactful and memorable for employees – as well data-ready for metrics and performance management.

TSC has an enviable reputation for generating dynamically accurate simulation models that represent actual plant systems for both Operator Training and Validation studies. ISO 9001:2015 certified, TSC’s major clients include many of the worlds major Oil and Gas Exploration companies, including BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Petronas, PDO Oman and many others across 32 countries.

LEARN, TRAIN, PERFORM

Provides an easy-to-use lesson creation platform for trainers and teachers to create and distribute lessons as well as monitor trainee or student performance.